I have been working on a layout for vinyl cutting which requires objects to be added and subtracted from each other to create one final united image. I have been redoing the same layout multiple times for practice and constantly run into the issue of the Add and Subtract Boolean tools not working consistently. I have read through several of the forums and tried various things based on the information I found. I thought I had it figured out yesterday. I used the Alt key when adding and subtracting to create a nondistructive version and it worked. If the shapes wouldn't add or substract properly at first, if I held down the ALT key it worked. Today however I was going through the layout again as I did yesterday, and now it's not working with or without using the Alt key.
I've attached some screen grabs of the progression of what I'm trying to do. I type the word "the", convert it to curves, and ungroup it. I'm able to join the E to the H with no problem, then when I select the HE and try to add the T, it creates weird shapes. I tried it with and without holding down the Alt key. If I shift the order of the layers, it works. Yesterday, I did not have to do that. I used the Alt key and I was able to get everything to add together without any problem.
I then take the word THE and try to subtract it from the heart shape. Once again I get unusal shapes. I tried it with and without holding the ALT key as well as with and without converting the Heart shape to a curve. This was not an issue yesterday. I was able to get it to subtract without any issues.
I've checked nodes to see if I could see any issues, but nothing is jumping out at me. Can you please help?
Heart Knockout.afdesign